Sintering ores and the like



Dec. 11, 1951 A. HOLMBERG SINTERING ORES AND THE LIKE 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 Filed Jan. 4, 1949 ATTORNEYS Q LE U Dec. 11, 1951 A. HOLNIBERG SINTERING ORES AND THE LIKE 2 Sl-iEETS-Sl-IEET 2 Filed Jan. 4, 1949 INVENTOR Mays flal/ffiffi.

mail, 9M M 1W ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 11, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE The present invention relates to an apparatus l for sintering ores, concentrate and other pulverulent materials of the kind comprising sintering pans, which are stationary during the sintering, and are portable after the sintering for emptying and-charging. Known plants of this type are beset with certain drawbacks, viewed from the point of view of their operation, and have only restricted capacity.

The invention eliminates these drawbacks, and the characterizing feature of the plant is that a travelling crane or the like is arranged to bring each of the sintering pans to a roller device after the sintering of the material, and that the sintering pans after being placed on the roller device are started automatically and brought to a tilt- 3 Claims. (Cl. 266) ing device with automatic emptying, and are then, passed to one or more charging devices for automatic charging, and brought back to the place on the roller device for conveyance to the respective sintering positions.

In the accompanying drawings is diagrammatically shown an embodiment of a plant according to the present invention. Fig. 1 shows a longitudinal section of the plant, Fig. 2 a vertical section along the line II in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 shows a vertical section along the line II--II in Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 shows a vertical section along the line III-III in Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, the reference numeral I designates the sintering pans and A the sintering chamber. The pipes of each of the suction fans operating on the respective sintering pans are designated by 2. 3 designates a travelling crane arranged in the sintering chamber and running on a rail 9 with a stop 8. By this travelling crane 3 each sintering pan I is lifted and brought over the other sintering pans to a certain place Illa and set down on a roller device II in the charging chamber B. In order to obtain. easy setting down of the pans in the pan stands and in the rolling device the travelling crane is provided with means for its handling with both a higher and a lower downwardly directed speed.

I2, I3, I4 are charging bins provided with looking devices I, 5, 6 for the materials to be charged, viz. bed material, mixed material and ignition breeze, each of said charging bins also being provided with charging rollers I5a, I5b, I50. For reception of possible surplus material from the pans at the charging, an opening I is made in the charging floor. Said surplus material is collected and returned to the charging bin I3.

I6 is a tipping frame for the pans which contain ready sintered material, said tipping frame being rotary about two shafts. I1 designates a tipping stand located beneath the tipping frame I6 and provided with a bin and a sinter-crusher I8 having bars I9 through which the sintered material falls at the crushing. In order to obtain the quickest and most effective crushing of the sinter cake, the tooth wheels of the crusher I8 are so arranged that each wheel has one tooth I8a which is longer than the rest of the teeth. Besides, the tooth wheels of the crusher are displaced along the shaft in such a manner that,

the longer teeth form a spiral along the crushershaft. The tops of the crusher teeth as well as the top side of the crusher bars I9 are provided with a hard metal layer in order to prevent wear. Beneath the sinter crushed there is a bin with a screen 20, on which sinter bed material and unsintered, so-called return material, is separated from the finished sinter.

The finished crushed sinter in, sizes from up to 6 inches passes over said screen out through the sluice M to be forwarded to a blast furnace or the like. The separated return material and sinter bed material is forwarded to the respective bins by means of a conveyor 22. The sinter bed material is loaded into the bin I2 and the return material is supplied to a return bin located in the raw material department.

Above the tipping stand I! are exhausting means, a dust hood 23 with shutter 24 for removing the dust resulting from the tipping.

The operation is as follows:

When a ready charged pan Ia is lifted from the roller device II at the place I0 by the travelling crane 3, the limit switch 25 is released and the roller device II starts. The ready sintered pan I b on the place Ilia previously set down on the roller device II by the travelling crane 3 is, by means of the automatically started roller device I I, conveyed towards the tipping stand I1.

When the pan Ib has come within an appropriate distance from the tipping frame I6, limit switch 26 starting-the mechanism for lifting the dust hood shutter 24 is actuated. If, contrary to expectation, the dust hood shutter 24 should for some reason fail to open, a safety limit switch 21 nism 38. Simultaneously the dust hood mechanism is actuated and lowers the dust hood shutter 24 and closes the dust hood 23.

Immediately after the locking has been effected, the driving mechanism of the tipping frame I6 is actuated by means of a time relay, and the frame with the pan is rotated one or two revolutions, corresponding with the timing of the relay, the sintered material contained in the pan falling down in the bin of the tipping stand Hz for crushing and screening as mentioned above.

As soon as the pan has emptied its contents and returned to its horizontal position, the time relay unlocks thelocking mechanism 28, the pan being released from the tipping frame It.

The dust hood shutter 24 is also actuated by means of the time relay immediately after the release of the pan and is lifted at the same time as the rolling device ll starts, carrying the pan lb towards the charging devices la, l5b and I50.

When the pan lb has reached the limit switch 3l, said switch is actuated and the charging device l5a for sinter bed material, which is charged on the fire base area in the pan, is started. During its continued advance the pan actuates the limit switch 32, which in turn actuates the charging device l5b for the mixed material, and thus the pan is charged with said material. When the pan has reached the limit switch 33 this, in turn, actuates the charging device l5c for ignition material which is intended to facilitate the ignition of the charges of the pans and which, if necessary, is applied to the surface of the charge. All charging devices are provided with time relays corresponding to an accurate filling of the pan in relation to its speed on the way.

When the pan lb has reached the end position l0 on the roller device, it actuates a limit switch 34 which in turn stops the roller device, and the pan also actuates a limit switch 35 which prepares to start the roller device with a pan containing sintered material towards the tipping stand ll.

While the sintered pan lb has been emptied and charged and has reached the end position in the place l0, the travelling crane 3 has brought the previously charged pan la to a sintering place 31 in the sintering chamber A and set it down in a pan stand 36. The pan is automatically connected to the suction pipe of the fan, is ignited, and then sintered the necessary time.

Immediately after having set down the pan la, I

the travelling crane 3 grips a ready sintered pan lc and sets it down on the place Illa. Then the crane takes the ready charged pan lb and brings it to its sintering place in the chamber, whereupon the process is repeated.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In sintering apparatus for sintering materials and for discharging the resulting sintered products, in combination: a plurality of portable sintering pans, said pans being stationary during sintering operations in a plurality of work positions, a roller table on which said pans are adapted to travel, said roller table being provided with automatic starting means, a plurality of suction pipes extending from said work positions, a pan tipping device for tipping said pans and discharging sintered material therefrom, a dust hood on said pan tipping device, said dust hood being provided with an opening therein to permit the passage of a sintering pan, and with means for automatically closing said opening after passage of said sintering pan therethrough, a crusher positioned adjacent said pan tipping device, said crusher being provided with crusher discs having teeth movable between parallel bars for crushing the sintered material, a travelling crane adapted to transport a pan containing sintered material from a work position to said roller table, said pan being then conveyed thereon to said pan tipping device, means for automatically discharging said sintered material from said pan at said pan tipping device, means for automatically returning said pan from which said sintered material has been discharged to one part of said roller table, means for automatically charging said returned pan with material to be sintered, and means for automatically returning said charged pan to another part of said roller table, whereby said charged pan may be transported by said travelling crane to a work position.

2. Sintering apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said tipping device includes means for automatically locking a sintering pan therein.

3. sintering apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein each crusher disc is provided with a plurality of teeth, one of which is longer than the other teeth of said disc.

ANDERS HOLMBERG.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,656,115 Holmberg Jan. 10, 1928 2,041,472 Holmberg May 19, 1936 2,367,063 Shallock Jan. 9, 19 .5 2,446,403 Bassereau Aug. 3, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 496,907 Germany Apr. 29, 1930 543,344 Germany Feb. 4, 1932 

